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Right. I finally have my saturdays back and it's come time to pull out the boxes and start putting my engine together. Oddly enough, the head was under my bed (at my folks place!). I've measured it up and with the engine, I should be looking at 10.8:1 CR (inc dish/gasket).

The engine was out of an autograsser who had used it in 3 races and then stuck it in his shed. I bought it for the princely sum of £570 (a few years ago). It was a Bill Richards job originally and then recently rebuilt by Baldwin. It was running 137 baldwins at the flywheel.

The "silly" camshaft was the subject of a previous thread.

The "lump" consists of 84mm "normal" crank, S rods, omega 7cc pistons (73.5), 1:1 SC drops, 4 syncro SC box 3.6FD and salisbury diff. It was breathing through a pretty good head pictured below. 26cc chambers 37/31 valves and BIIIIG inlet ports. Ex ports seem quite small. S Rockers and likely to be a full full full race cam (matey said it was as crazy as they came....unknown). Weber 48 on a 7" manifold with 60mm trumpets. Not sure of the jets or the chokes, but they were "right".

The mini is a 66 running dry suspension...all played with properly. The car has no carpets, roll cage and is not designed for driving to work in....although I used to. It's basically a road going go kart. I don't care how expensive it is to run, how noisy it is, or what it smells like.

It will be having a moderately sensible clutch put in it, although it does have a seriously worked steel flywheel. I might replace this for a really light one, in the interests of accelleration.

I was just going to rebuild it as it is, but was reading about engines on the interweb and someone mentioned something about a high winding 1430 needing regular rebuilds. That made me go "WHOA" and ask the experts.

I accept that my engine is going to require regular love, but it's my prerogative to put it together properly and use the right lubricants to ensure that it doesn't "blow up".

I was going to ditch the Weber DCOE as I haven't got the heart to go chopping the dash around and moving the speedo and go for an IDA. This is still an option. The IDA vs SU debate will be one to have. I'd like to retain exciting performance, whilst not having to rebuild it every 1000 miles.

I'm aiming to keep the head, probably keep the S Rockers. I figure that whopper ports and valves are going to have everything moving anyway. I will hold the "getting a 3>1 manifold" for a minute.

I'm at the moment putting the diff back on the box....damn, need some diff bolts. Then it will be onto cleaning everything and assembling it. I don't want to be too hasty.


I quite like the idea of having something which is an absolute handful to drive, but does not require a rebuild every year. Car will get used "occasionally".

Using that head/rocker/engine/gears setup, what cam would make the best out of it, with a sensible rev limit that a "normal" 1430 bottom end can take without causing major wear?


Before anyone says "It's not green". 99% of the paint was taken off with solvents.....the green

sounds similar to my 1430, bar mine is helical (I couldn't stand sc stuff in a road car), has twin 1.5's and runs a 2" lcd / 2" maniflow system and a 3.4 final drive

theres no reason at all to assume that it will 'only' do 1000 miles, its only very high revs that are going to significantly reduce the 'hours' the engine can run (and lets face it, 1000 at 80mph is only 12 hours of running, which is nothing!)

mine trundles along happily at under 5000rpm, in fact I don't think its even been past 5500.

My last engine was a 1275 +60, 286cam, well worked head, but nothing silly. 36/30 ported and matched. I bought it from a guy who had a 40DCOE on it, but also a HIF44. I didn't want the DCOE for an extra £250 or so, so I stuck with the HIF44. First was next to useless. That was on a 3.44 and first (A+ gears) just involved tyre smoke, wherever it was, on a hill, at traffic lights, pulling out of a junction. 2nd was too high to use as a first. I really do not want a repeat of this. I think spread-ratio boxes are only suitable for forced induction engines.

My estimation is that the HIF44 tamed the bottom end and choked the top end. I was running a standard LCB through a single box. I am keen on not choking an engine, or restricting it.

I suppose something with change points around 5000-5500 would be quite good, but more to go if driving like a particular spazz. Something along the lines of "under normal use, you don't wring the hell out of it, but if you do, there is more power". Perhaps something which peaks at 6000-6300.

I wonder when revs with a 1430 start really wearing things. Is there a "If you pass this point, it will quickly come to bits". I felt my 286 engine was running out of breath, rather than running out of revs. It was restricted.

It would be an idea to chuck the present cam out and then select the best possible one to fit with existing components. Lots of 1380s run 286s on the hillclimb circuit. I had wondered about a 649, since it seems to be a choice with the rally lot. I really do wonder.

Quite clearly, a big engine tames a race cam, but I wonder when you start knocking the hell out of it. I figure my 320/320 is probably along the same lines as a 649 in a 1293. However, it's got a lot more to chuck around (all lightened and balanced - crank is not wedged though). I had considered the idea of getting the crank wedged and then getting a featherweight flywheel.

The name of the game is driving enjoyment and longevity, not manners.

You'd be wasting the potential of that nice-looking head by not installing 1.5:1 rockers